Helmut Illbruck traces the concept of nostalgia from the earliest uses of the term in the seventeenth century to today as it evolves with different meanings and intensities in the discourses of medicine, literature, philosophy, and aesthetics. Following nostalgia’s troubled relations to the philosophical project of the Enlightenment, Illbruck’s study builds a cumulative argument about nostalgia’s modern significance that often revises and thoroughly enriches our understanding of cultural, literary, and intellectual history. Illbruck concludes with an attempt at a reinterpretation and defense of nostalgia, which seduces us to read and think with, rather than against, nostalgia’s wistful yearning for the past. Nostalgia: Origins and Ends of an Unenlightened Disease is a comprehensive, insistent, and profound interdisciplinary investigation of the history of an idea. It should appeal to readers interested in the cultural makings of the Enlightenment and modernity or in the histories of medicine, literature, and philosophy.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Helmut Illbruck is an assistant professor of German at Texas A&M University.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Original Questions

Chapter 1. Nostalgia’s Early Modern Origins: Cultural Backgrounds

Chapter 2. Dr. Thomas Willis and the Science of Nervous Sensibility

Chapter 3. Nostalgia’s Original Theories: Implications and Effects

Chapter 4. The Ranz-des-Vaches

Chapter 5. “Medical” Nostalgia and Its Uses in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Europe

Chapter 6. Critics of Nostalgia: Kant, Schopenhauer, and the Question of Time

Chapter 7. Nostalgia’s Modern Translations

Chapter 8. Uncanny Acts of Violence

Chapter 9. Postmodern Reencounters

Conclusion: The End of Nostalgia

Notes

Bibliography

Index

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Helmut Illbruck traces the concept of nostalgia from the earliest uses of the term in the seventeenth century to today as it evolves with different meanings and intensities in the discourses of medicine, literature, philosophy, and aesthetics. Following nostalgia’s troubled relations to the philosophical project of the Enlightenment, Illbruck’s study builds a cumulative argument about nostalgia’s modern significance that often revises and thoroughly enriches our understanding of cultural, literary, and intellectual history. Illbruck concludes with an attempt at a reinterpretation and defense of nostalgia, which seduces us to read and think with, rather than against, nostalgia’s wistful yearning for the past. Nostalgia: Origins and Ends of an Unenlightened Disease is a comprehensive, insistent, and profound interdisciplinary investigation of the history of an idea. It should appeal to readers interested in the cultural makings of the Enlightenment and modernity or in the histories of medicine, literature, and philosophy.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Helmut Illbruck is an assistant professor of German at Texas A&M University.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Original Questions

Chapter 1. Nostalgia’s Early Modern Origins: Cultural Backgrounds

Chapter 2. Dr. Thomas Willis and the Science of Nervous Sensibility

Chapter 3. Nostalgia’s Original Theories: Implications and Effects

Chapter 4. The Ranz-des-Vaches

Chapter 5. “Medical” Nostalgia and Its Uses in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Europe

Chapter 6. Critics of Nostalgia: Kant, Schopenhauer, and the Question of Time

Chapter 7. Nostalgia’s Modern Translations

Chapter 8. Uncanny Acts of Violence

Chapter 9. Postmodern Reencounters

Conclusion: The End of Nostalgia

Notes

Bibliography

Index

REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE

If you are a student who has a disability that prevents you
from using this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.

Please have the disability coordinator at your school fill out this form.